The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-10

OFF the flies There are multltudeS to-day
who have never had any Christian worker
look them in the eye, and with earnestness
in the accentuation, say: Gomez or they
would long ago have been in the kingdom.
Ny friends, religion is either a sham or a
tremendous reality. If it be a sham, let us
disband our churches and Christian asso-
citation. If it be a reality, then great popu-
lations are on their way to the bar of God
untitled for the ordeal, and what are we
doing'
In order to reach the multitude of out
siders we must drop all technicalities out OF
our religion When we talk to people about
the hypostatic union and French Encyclo-
pedianism, and Erastinianism, and Com
plutensianism, we are as impolitc and
little understood as if a physician should
talk to an ordinary patient about the peri
cardium, and intercostal muscle, and scor-
butte symptoms. Many of us come out of
the theological seminaries so loaded up that
we take the first ten years to show our peo-
pie how much we know, and the next ten
years get our people to know as much as we
know, and at the end find that neither of us
know anything as we ought to
know. Here are hundreds and thou
sands of shining, struggling, and
dying people who need to realize just one
thing-that Jesus Christ came to save them,
and will save them now. But we 20 into a
profound and elaborate definition of what
justification is, ard after all the work there
are not, outside of the learned professions,
five thousand people in the United States
who can tell what justification is. | will
read you the definition:
Justification is purely forensic act, the
act of a judge sitting in the forum, in which
the Supreme Ruler and Judge, who is ac-
countable to none and who alone knows
the manner in which the ends of His uni
versal government can best be obtained,
reckonS that which was done by the substi-
tute i'll the same manner as If 1T had been
done by those who believe i'll the substitute,
and not on account of anything done by
them, but purely upon account of this gra-
cious method of reckoning, grants them the
full remission of their sins"
Now, what is justification | will tell
you what justification is-when sinner
believes, God lets him off. One summer in
Connecticut | went to a large factory, and
| saw over the door written the words: "No
Admittancen | entered and saw over the
next door: mo Admittance" OF course
| entered / got inside and found it a pin
factory, and they were making pins, very
serviceable, fine and useful pins. SO the
spirit of exclusiveness has practically writ
ten over the outside door of many d church
''No Admittance. And if the Stranger enters
he finds practically written over the second
door: ''No Admittance,n and If he goes in,
over all the pew doors seems written: mo
Admittance," while the minister stands in
the pulpit, hammering out his little niceties
of belief, pounding out the technicalities of
religion, making pins. In tho most practi-
cal, common sense way, and laying aside
the non essentials and the hard definitions
of religion, go out on the God-given mission,
telling the people what they need and when
and how they can get it.
Comparatively little effort as vet has been
made to save that large class of persons in
our midst called. skeptics, and he who goes
to work here will not be building upon an
other mans foundation. There is a great
multitude of them. They are afraid of lis
and our churches, for the reason we don't
know how to treat them. One of this class
met Christ, and hear with what tenderness
and pathos, and beauty, and success Christ
dealt with HIM: Thou shalt love the Lord
! thy God with all thy heart. and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind, and with al
thv strength This is the first command.
ment, and the second is like to this; namely
| thou shalt love thy neighbOr as thyself
There is no other commandment greater
than this" And the scribe said to him
"Well, Master, thou hast said the truth, fdl
there is one God, and to love him with al
the heart, and ali the understanding, and
all the soul, and all the strength is more
than whole burnt offerings and sacrifices
And when Jesus saw that he answered dis
creetly, he said unto him: Thou are not
far from the kingdom of God" So a siIeptiC
was saved i'll one interview. But few
Christian people treat the skeptic in that
way. Instead of taking hold of him with
the gentle hand of love, we are ant to take
him with the iron pncers of ecclesiasticism
You would not be so rough on that man
if you knew by what process he had lost his
faith in Christianity. have known men
skeptical from the fact that they grew III
in houses where religion was overdone
Sunday was the most awful day of the
week. They had religion driven into them
with trip-hamIner. They were surfeited
with prayer meetings. They were stuffed
and choked with catechislns. They were
often told they were the worst boys the
parents ever knew, because they liked to
ride down hill better than to read Bunyan's
Pilgrims Progress. Whenever father and
mother talked of religion they drew down
the corners of their mouth and rolled UP
their eyes. If any one thing will send a
boy or girl to perdition sooner than another
that is it. If had had such father and
mother fear | should have been an infdel
Others were tripped up Of skeptlcsm
from being grievously wronged by some
man who professed to be Christian. They
had partner in business who turned out 70
be first-class scoundrel, though professed
Christian. Twenty years ago they lost all
faith by what happened in an oil company
which was formed amid the petroleum ex-
citement. The company owned no land or
ii they did, there was no sign of oil pro
duced: but the President of the company
was Presbyterian elder, and the Treasurer
was an Episcopal vestryman, and one
director was Methodist class leader, and
the other directors prominent members of
Baptist and Congregational churches Cir
culars were gotten out telling what fabu-
lous prospects opened before this company.
Innocent men and women who had little
money to invest, and that little their all,
said: II don't know anything about this
company, but so many good men are at the
head of it that it must be excellent, and
taking stock in it must be almost as
good as joining the church" So they
bought the stock, and perhaps received one
dividend SO as to keep them STILL but after a
while they found that the company had re.
organized, and had different president,
and different treasurer, and different direc-
tors. Other engagements, or III l-health, had
caused the former officers of the company,
with many regrets, to resign. And all that
the subscribers of thatstock had To show for
their investment was beautifully orna-
mented certificate. Sometimes that man,
looking over his old papers, comes across
that certificate, and it is so suggestive that
he VOWS he wants none Of the religion that
the presidents, and trustees and directors Of
that oil company profeSsed. OF course the r
rejection of religion on such grounGs was
unphilosophical and unwise. l. am told that